Notizie Evangeliche Press Release

Torre Pellice (TO), 31 August 2007 -- The members of the Synod roundly applauded the remarks of Reverend Maria Bonafede that drew this year’s assembly to a close.  Moments earlier, the Synod had re-elected Bonafede to her third year of service as Moderator of La Tavola Valdese, the administrative board of the Waldensian/Methodist Church.

Taking as her starting point an excerpt from Martin Buber’s book, The Way of Man, the Moderator reminded the members of the Synod of the purpose of preaching and service.  “In this story, the prisoner Rabbi Shneur Zalman is chatting with the Commander of the Guard in St. Petersburg.  He tells the Commander that in every age, God calls human beings into question: ‘it is in this way that God causes your heart to tremble and liberates you from your chains.’”  Expanding upon this insight, the Moderator emphasized the importance of addressing difficult topics clearly.  “The Gospel is preached by stating those things that are true, that are fundamental, but with simplicity, and always with love, because love lies at the center of our work.”

The Moderator devoted significant attention to the various expressions of diversity that characterize Waldensian and Methodist congregations in Italy.  She focused especially on immigrant church members, a rapidly growing phenomenon.  Noting that for centuries Italian Protestants were considered odd and different, the Moderator affirmed: “We have worn our cultural and religious diversity with dignity but also with difficulty.  Alterity* is a condition that enables us to break the chains of habitual thinking and to understand profoundly what discrimination means for the person who is different.  All of us by now hold strongly to the conviction that persons who come from far away have the right to full citizenship in our churches, a right that too often they do not enjoy in our country.  In Italy, faith is now a plural noun,” she concluded.

*Note: Alterity means “otherness”, strictly being in the sense of the other of two (Latin alter). It is generally now taken as the philosophical principle of exchanging one's own perspective for that of the "other." The concept was established by Emmanuel Lévinas in a series of essays, collected under the title Alterity and Transcendence.